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Annotation:How Can We Abstain from Whisky
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HOW CAN WE ABSTAIN FROM WHISKY. AKA - "How Shall We Abstain from Whiskey." AKA and see "Legacy (1) (The)." AKA - "Cia mar is urra' sinn fuireach o'n Dram." Scottish, Jig. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "The editor has great pleasure in asserting his country's claim to this melody lately introduced as Irish, under the name of 'The Legacy', supposed new, whereas it has been current in the north for sixty years as the composition of John MacMaurdo of Kintail, since emigrated to America" (Fraser). "The editor has already attempted to rescue this melody from a clain of its being Irish. The author, John MacMurdo or MacRae of Kintail, was one of the most sentimental composers of song ever known in the north, and several others of his will be pointed out in this work. He observes, in the words to this air, that though his wife may sometimes brawl at him for consuming, in convivial excess, his means of supporting her and his young family, he must devote a part of it to social friendship, that often links men closer than chieftainry or relationship" (Fraser).
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Fraser (The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles), 1816/1874; No. 61, p. 21.
Recorded sources:
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